philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Microsoft Ties Up With Unity Technologies, Opens Doors For Augmented Reality Gaming

Unity describes this tie-up as a "strategic collaboration" that aims to offer an "optimal authoring solution" for Microsoft's HoloLens technology. The touted authoring solutions include tools customised specifically to leverage the AR aspect of HoloLens.

For example, one of the tools showcased at the event allows developers to anchor virtual holographic objects onto those in the real world. A good illustration of this implementation would be the ability to play Real-Time Strategy games using the HoloLens, with a real world coffee table serving as the battlefield. This will allow developers to achieve a tighter and more meaningful integration of the HoloLens' AR aspect into video games.

Techcrunch points out that the low-cost, PC-centric nature and versatility of the Unity engine also makes it the backbone of choice for a majority of Oculus Rift game developers. This, when combined with the relatively open nature and ethos of the Unity engine, means that the deal between Microsoft and Unity Technologies doesn't seem to entail much in terms of exclusivity for Microsoft.

Turn Your House Into A ‘Paranormal Activity’ Movie With This Terrifying New Game

Gameplay involves walking around your house at night looking through your phone’s screen. The game creates a 3D template of your surroundings using all the technology available on smartphones — the camera, GPS, accelerometer and gyroscope. As you walk around, the game reacts to your environment in real-time.

See the full story, including the Indiegogo video, here: http://www.mtv.com/news/2147889/augmented-reality-horror-game/

Valve releases a kit for making virtual reality apps

Valve has released a software development kit that lets apps use SteamVR hardware, including Valve's controller and room-scale Lighthouse tracking. On top of that, the platform now works nicely with both the Unity game engine (through a plugin) and Unreal Engine 4. It'll be a long while before you can actually run programs built on this code -- the VR devices have yet to reach many developers, let alone the public -- but this at least gets the ball rolling.

See the full story here: http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/30/valve-releases-openvr-kit/

A 3-D-Printed Implant Saves Lives

Doctors rescue boys by propping open their airways using stents made via 3-D printing.

The stents are customized to match the length, diameter, and thickness of the child’s airway. The plastic material slowly dissolves over about three years, and as it breaks down becomes less stiff, allowing the airway additional room to grow. Green says the plastic stent costs only about $10 in materials to produce.

According to the doctors, the implants were each designed and produced in less than five days.

See the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/537166/a-3-d-printed-implant-saves-lives/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150501

Maker Select Enables the Purchasing of Ad Space on YouTube

During its NewFront presentation in New York this week, Disney-owned Maker Studios announced Maker Select, which will allow advertisers to buy ad space on Maker’s 55,000 YouTube channels in addition to all other YouTube channels. Maker Select will incorporate Maker’s audience data with data from YouTube, Nielsen, social networks and additional sources. Advertisers can target ads based on content type, brand compatibility and audience makeup. The new offering comes from a partnership with Web video analytics firm OpenSlate.

“Maker will be able to offer these advertisers audience guarantees using Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings data,” notes the article. “That data could help some advertisers compare potential Maker Select campaigns with TV campaigns.”

“It gives the TV buyers more confidence to spend big dollars,” said OpenSlate CEO Mike Henry. “And for Maker, they aren’t just focused on their slice of the pie anymore.”

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/maker-select-enables-the-purchasing-of-ad-space-on-youtube/#more-91455

and here: http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/04/28/you-can-now-buy-ads-on-all-of-youtube-through-maker-studios/

Sleep Dealer

Philip Lelyveld comment; this indie movie deals with VR, drones, and aspirations.  It came out in 2008 and quickly disappeared.  It is worth a second look.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804529/

WITH ELDER-SUPPORT SERVICE, APPLE MOVES DEEPER INTO THE HEALTH CARE SPACE

Japan Post is a government-owned holding company that runs a postal service, and it already offered a "watch over" service through which, for a fee, postal employees checked up on elderly people and reported back to their families about their well-being. If all goes as planned, by next year, that same Japan Post worker will show up at elderly people's homes with an iPad loaded with "quality of life" apps that help do things like scheduling medical appointments, hiring home maintenance professionals, volunteering, and coordinating travel. When the postal service employees check in, they’ll also help their customers with any questions about using this suite of apps.

Japan Post’s service, which is designed to be a central coordination point for seniors' lives, could paint a much fuller picture of how lifestyle and health intersect for the insurer.

All data collected through the iPad apps will be anonymized, except in instances when customers choose to opt in so that they can, for instance, share their schedules with the Japan Post employee who works with them.

"We’re going to enable personalized health care on a huge scale," John E. Kelly, a senior vice president who oversees IBM’s research labs and new initiatives, recently told the Wall Street Journal.

See the full story here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3045800/tech-forecast/with-elder-support-service-apple-goes-deeper-into-the-healthcare-space?partner=rss

The New York Times Explores Virtual Reality at Second NewFronts Presentation

The Times, in collaboration with Chris Milk and his production company, Vrse, offered attendees the chance to view a virtual reality film starring the French artist JR, whose work was featured in the most recent issue of The New York Times Magazine.

The virtual reality film, titled “Walking New York,” takes viewers through the making of the Magazine’s cover, for which JR took a photo of a recent immigrant to New York and pasted a 150-foot-tall version of the portrait on the Flatiron Plaza in Manhattan. The final cover photograph is a shot of the portrait taken from a helicopter above the city. The film, narrated by JR, lets viewers experience every aspect of the process, from the initial photo shoot on the street, to the studio work, to the pasting, to the helicopter ride.

The film was directed by Milk, JR and Zach Richter. It was produced through Milk’s production company, Vrse.works, and is available to watch on virtual reality headsets and any modern cell phone using the Vrse app. Times Magazine editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein stated that he will be working with Vrse on future virtual reality projects.

See the full story here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-new-york-times-explores-virtual-reality-at-second-newfronts-presentation-2015-04-27

Samsung Brings Celebrity Reality Series ‘My 360′ To Gear VR Through Milk VR

Samsung has reportedly signed contracts with the NBA, Mountain Dew and Red Bull to bring content to the Gear VR, through a dedicated in-house app called Milk VR, which offers 360-degree virtual reality content for the device. Towards this end, Samsung has announced that they have tied up with production company Matador to produce a reality series called “My 360”, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. While the first episode will feature Miami Heat basketball player Chris Bosch, subsequent episodes will feature San Francisco Giants pitcher Jake Peavy, and internet celebs Kevin Strahle and Richard Ryan amongst others.

Matt Apfel, VP of Strategy and Creative Content at Samsung’s Media Solutions Center, also promised to deliver “better graphics, music, narration” for their about to be launched programs on Milk VR.

See the full story here: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2015/04/samsung-brings-celebrity-reality-series-360-gear-vr-milk-vr.html

Taplet Lets You Pull HD Photos From Any Video With A Single Tap

The company, with $1 million in seed funding, has created an app that lets users upload HD video and then tap the perfect moments to pull HD videos.

Users can upload content from Dropbox and save it to their phones before digging into the app, or pull from videos taken directly on the phone by tapping into the Camera Roll. From there, simply tap to turn a moving image into a single photo, and then share those photos to various social networks like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

The most common users of the app (while it’s been in beta) are surfers, snowboarders and other extreme sports enthusiasts who love to capture footage with their GoPros, but don’t want to share hours’ worth of footage.

“The biggest challenge is getting people to remember they don’t need to always choose between recording a video or taking a photo,” said co-founder Dustin Pourbaba. 

See the full story here: http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/17/taplet-lets-you-pull-hd-photos-from-any-video-with-a-single-tap/